Podcasts and other media about tech for blind and VI users

By Tara, 22 March, 2024

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Other Apple Chat

Hi all,
Not sure which section to post this. But here is a list of podcasts and other resources about technology people might find helpful. It's stuff I've been checking out over the last few months. If you search for these in your podcast feed they should come up. Double tap, eyes on success, Shaun of the shed, RNIB tech talk, that real blind tech show. Most of these are UK based apart from Eyes on Success and That Real Blind Tech Show. All these focus on technology across the board from Apple to Windows to Android. RNIB Tech Talk and Shaun of the Shed do provide guides on using stuff. RNIB Tech Talk is one of the best, and I like Eyes on Success too. Double Tap is OK, there are some real gems of info in there, and there are some quick guides I think, but they've got a bit too much banter for my liking. But it depends what you like I suppose. I haven't got a quick way to share all the links to the feeds. I use my iPhone and iPadd which mean I would have to share everything via email to my Windows computer, since I don't like typing long stuff on my phone.

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Comments

By mr grieves on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

I love Double Tap - sure it's not maybe that focused but I find the tangents are essential to me, plus they usually make me laugh at the same tie.

I struggle with that blind tech show. The content is fine but all the 80s pop culture sound effects really grate. Ace Ventura was annoying enough at the time. So I stopped listening to it as I found it too annoying.

I think a lot with podcasts are about how much you connect with the hosts and their personalities and senses of humour.

I like Shaun of the Shed too, but it's only once a month. I'll check out the others you mentioned.

VoiceOver said this topic was Podcasts for Blind and 6 users, so guess it's trying to interpret Roman numerals now. I did wonder what the hell it was on about to start with.

By Ekaj on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

The only one I haven't heard of I think is Shaun of the Shed, but I will check him out. All the others are great, and you're forgetting the podcast(s) on this very website. Yes, I'm subscribed to the AppleVis podcast and have thoroughly enjoyed it. For whatever reason Apple's podcast app wasn't working for me that well. But I've now got it on my new phone and so far so good. No notifications as of yet though, but perhaps I just haven't configured them for the app.

By Ekaj on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

I'm back with a podcast suggestion. I only discovered this one about a month or so ago, but it seems to be pretty good. It is from the Braillists Foundation, and is pretty good. I just listened to part 1 of a 3-part series all about ioS and Braille done by Scott Davert.

By Siobhan on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

David Woodbridge from austrailia is a wonderful podcaster. His own site: www.davidwoodbr.podbean.com is updated with things like the hable one, or iphone related stuff and I think even Windows and droid stuff. He explains things wonderfully/

By mr grieves on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

Another podcast I used to listen to a lot is Blind Abilities - they had a series called iPhone 101 which was amazing when I first started to use VoiceOver on the iPhone. (Although annoyingly the part on 2 finger gestures had gone missing, but maybe they have fixed that.) I've not really listened to it much since then, but they do seem to be churning out good tech news so maybe I need to revisit.

By Ollie on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

Are there any that are more like blogs? I really don't have the time or inclination to listen to an hour podcast when I can read the info in a fraction of that time? Not to say the podcasts aren't great! They are. I'm just very strapped for time. Podcasts have never quite hit the spot for me, would rather listen to an audiobook.

By Tara on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

Hi Olly,
Some of these podcasts do have accompanying websites.
Double Tap does actually have a website with resources apparently.
https://doubletaponair.com/
I don't know how good it is; I haven't checked it out. They just advertise it on their podcast.
Eyes on Success website
https://www.eyesonsuccess.net/
I know what you mean about being strapped for time. I don't listen to these podcasts religiously or anything. I look at the show notes and decide from these if there's anything that interests me from a particular episode and take it from there. I'm afraid I don't know of any blogs really. I only really know about Marco's accessibility blog, and the New Hoffsteader, sorry about the spellings. But those are focused on web accessibility, and aren't updated regularly as far as I can remember. I would rather read stuff too to be honest. I'd rather not listen to banter even if some of these podcasts do come up with some real gems sometimes. I haven't actually listen to the real blind tech show, it was mentioned on another podcast which is why I subscribed but still haven't checked out any episodes. The guys from Double Tap are nice though, and Shaun from Double Tap does the Shaun of the Shed one. I do have a soft spot for the RNIB tech talk guys though, they seem like really nice people. Thanks to everybody else for the other suggestions! I'll check them out. I didn't include the AppleVis ones here because people who come here surely know about those. But for those who don't, if you search for 'AppleVis' in your podcatcher of choice you'll find it. And this site has all the archives too I think.

By Siobhan on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

I understand what you mean, however he gets to the point quickly. I think the latest one is ten minutes, you can always skip through it. i'd say it's more like someone showing you as if you're next to them, rather then the banter which I agree can be annoying. Just listen to a few seconds, make a choice from there. Just trying to help.

By Tara on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

I’ll check that David Woodbridge one out.

By Ollie on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

Yeah, David gets to the meat of it straight off.

There is also the transcription feature in the latest IOS which allows us to read the podcast rather than listen. Still, it has all the banter in there which, though it's nice, does leave me skipping through.

By Jonathan Mosen on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

For those who haven’t given it a listen, Living Blindfully is my podcast that, while not exclusively tech-related, has a large amount of technology content relating to all platforms. You get interviews with key people, for example at the time I’m writing this, the most recent episode has an interview with Microsoft’s Chief Accessibility officer. The week before that, we spoke with the two founders of Envision, and recently we spoke with the VP of product Management at Vispero. Our next episode has the CEO of Aira along with a demo of their new Access AI feature.

In addition to that, we’re very honoured to have listeners in 113 countries now who leave email contributions we read on the show, as well as recording their own audio. So we get a lot of opinion as well as people helping each other out with tech questions.

To Ollie’s point regarding time constraints, we transcribe our episodes and its done by a human, not a machine. That person is also blind, so she knows the products we all use, meaning accuracy is very high.

Also, it’s easy to skip past parts of the show that don’t interest you if you’re listening to it, because we make extensive use of podcast chapters. Unfortunately, there is an accessibility issue with finding the chapter buttons in Apple Podcasts at the moment, but if you use a third-party tool that supports podcasts such as Overcast, Downcast, Castro or Pocketcasts, it works well and is really handy.

We’ve implemented a player on the website, https://LivingBlindfully.com, where our show notes contains a time stamp for every item. If you press Enter on the time stamp, we move you right to that point in the audio and start to play it. So we do all we can to respect your precious time and get you to the info that matters to you.

We operate a mastodon account, @Podcast@LivingBlindfully.social, which posts a lot of useful technology and blindness-related content.

Hope you find it a good listen.

By Callum Stoneman on Monday, March 18, 2024 - 05:39

Hi all,

Just wanted to say a quick thanks for the kind words about RNIB Tech Talk. I’m one of the co-hosts, and it's really nice to hear that people are enjoying what we do. Remember you're always welcome to get in touch with the show by emailing techtalk@rnib.org.uk.

By Tara on Monday, March 25, 2024 - 05:39

Hi all,
I want to thank everybody for all the great new podcasts I hadn't heard of before. I've just checked the David Woodbridge one out; I like it. And Callam thank you for your response. I might reach out to you and the team in the future if I have questions about something. And Jonathan thank you. I had heard of your podcast, But my understanding was it wasn't so much about tech. I'll give it a go though. There is also FSCast which has a blog as well as a podcast! Forgot about that.
https://blog.freedomscientific.com/fscast/
As I've just thought of a YouTube channel, maybe we could add those here too if anyone knows any good ones. Carrie on accessibility
https://www.youtube.com/@carrieonaccessibility
I found this because I was looking for info on the Seleste smart glasses. And please everybody, as I've updated the subject line, please feel free to add any blogs if you know any good ones!

By mr grieves on Monday, March 25, 2024 - 05:39

I gave the RNIB podcast a go last night and enjoyed it - very informative. I even picked up a good tip with using VoiceOver on the iPhone - not sure if it was something new to me or something I'd just forgotten but I already found myself using it.

Regarding YouTube there is more Double Tap goodness on there. They have a series of short episodes under the name Double Tap, although they are compiled together on a Sunday in podcast form for those like me that can't be bothered with YouTUbe.

Also, Steven Scott from Double Tap co-hosts Access Tech Live on YouTube. This is maybe a little slicker than Double Tap so might suit some better. Personally I prefer the randomness and banter of the normal podcast but I do sometimes check it out as well.

By David Goldfield on Monday, March 25, 2024 - 05:39

Hi. While the following are not podcasts they will certainly help you to keep up with not only blindness technology but with accessibility related news in general.

Subscribe to Stéphanie Walter's Newsletter: UX, accessibility, inclusive design & tech news!
https://stephaniewalter.design/subscribe-to-the-blog-updates/

Accessibility Weekly
https://a11yweekly.com/

Top Tech Tidbits
https://www.toptechtidbits.com/

Microassist's Accessibility in the News
https://www.microassist.com/digital-access/news/

Finally, I operate the Tech-VI announcement list. This allows you to receive emails containing news (mostly) regarding blindness technology. You can subscribe via email, access the archive on the Web or subscribe via RSS.
To subscribe via email, send an email to
tech-vi+subscribe@groups.io

Tech-VI on the Web
https://groups.io/g/tech-vi

Tech-VI RSS Feed
https://groups.io/g/tech-vi/rss

By Tara on Monday, March 25, 2024 - 05:39

Thanks David and Mr Grieves. I'll save this thread so I've got the resources when I want to access them. Thanks all for your contributions!

By Tarja on Monday, March 25, 2024 - 05:39

Thank you. It is very informative. I didn’t know much about these resources.

By Tara on Thursday, April 25, 2024 - 05:39

Hi all,
I found this podcast recently. I was looking for a demo on how to use the screen share feature in Aira and this was really helpful. It's specifically related to Aira with a couple of exceptions, and it's only updated once a month. Still good if you want to know something specifically related to Aira. The episodes tend to be short.